Stupid "friend"

Flanging_Fred

I have a rather stupid "friend", let's call him Bob. In a total braindead moment "bob" accidently plugged a foot switch into the speaker out socket on his amp while it was on. To be fair to Bob it was pretty dark and the two sockets were next to each other.

Anyway "Bob"'s amp is now not working. The lights come on but no sound (rather like Bob actually). What shall I tell "Bob" he should get checked in his amp to see what is borked . Output transformer, capacitors, valves etc.

I'm sure "Bob" would appreciate any advise.

57Deluxe

Sponge Bob...

ICBM

If Bob is lucky, it might have just blown the HT fuse, and probably a valve which is what usually causes the HT fuse to blow - although sometimes an arc will take out the fuse without permanently harming the valve.

If Bob is unlucky and the makers of his amp were thoughtless and didn't fit it with an HT fuse, it could possibly have blown the OT.

If Bob is really lucky and the speaker out socket disconnects the internal speaker, it's possible that the jack switch is not closing properly - probably having not been used much, it could be slightly corroded. I would suggest that you tell Bob to try the amp with an extension cab first, and see whether it works through that.

What type of amp does Bob have?

Drew_TNBD

Bob is most likely fucked.

Heartfeltdawn

Flanging_Fred said:

I'm sure "Bob" would appreciate any advise.

Get him to buy two sticky labels. On one, write ARSE, on the other, ELBOW. Apply as applicable. 

guitarfishbay

Blundering_Bob

Deijavoo

I had a friend called Bob once who spent his band's entire line check completely perplexed as to why no sound was coming out of his amp. Bob checked everything 3 times except the jack that was wrapped around his strap and NOT in his guitar.

Same tour that Bob nearly lamped a guitarist in one of the other bands that was playing with as Bob thought they'd nicked his pedal. The same pedal that was in Bob's case where it always was.

Bob shortly after stopped altering his mind so much at his gigs. 

Deijavoo

Bob also got really good at apologising.

richardhomer

Bob probably feels a bit of a 'C U next Tuesday'.

Deijavoo

Excellent use of the word "probably".

Bod

Poor Fred.  I mean Bob,

thermionic

Is this Phasing Bob?

Deijavoo

^^^winner right here^^^

Flanging_Fred

thermionic;429977" said:

Is this Phasing Bob?

Oh, you've met him. Nice chap but thick as pig shit. Thanks for the heads up @ICBM as always. I'll pass on the advice to "Bob"

p90fool

More importantly, what did the footswitch sound like?

stickyfiddle

Heartfeltdawn said:

Flanging_Fred said:

I'm sure "Bob" would appreciate any advise.

Get him to buy two sticky labels. On one, write ARSE, on the other, ELBOW. Apply as applicable. 

But how will Bob know which is which in order to apply the labels..?

digitalscream

Oh wow, I know a Bob too. He recently acquired a very expensive three-channel amp, and twice has plugged it into the "not connected" socket of his cab (when running in mono). Apparently last time he did it, it took him a while to realise and when playing a chord he could actually hear the sound coming from the amp's output transformer...

Silly, silly Bob.

mike257

Bob might want to do what I've done to avoid these situations in future - put a strip of white tape along the back edge of the top panel of your amp, bust out a Sharpie and mark it up to show where your connections are. Saves me loads of dicking about when my amp is right back against the wall and i'm trying to find footswitch sockets, power scaling switches and all the other fun stuff you can't see in the dark corners of a venue.

smigeon

My friend Bob recently suffered a whole band practice with what he thought was his amp playing up *again* by going all thin and toppy. Turned out that Bob had used his wah in the first song and hadn't pressed down hard enough on the switch when he'd finished.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Oh wow, I know a Bob too. He recently acquired a very expensive three-channel amp, and twice has plugged it into the "not connected" socket of his cab (when running in mono). Apparently last time he did it, it took him a while to realise and when playing a chord he could actually hear the sound coming from the amp's output transformer...

Silly, silly Bob.

We shouldn't laugh. I'm supposed to know what I'm doing and I've done something like that .

'64 Bassman head, Marshall 4x12". Playing a gig, soundcheck is fine, go off, come back on for the gig and I start the first song… silence. Guitar up full… check. Amp not on standby… check. Amp turned up… check. Still nothing. All the time strumming the guitar to see if I can hear anything. Lean against the front of the amp to look over the back to see if the valves are lit up… they are. And what's more, as I'm strumming the guitar they're flashing blue. Then I move slightly and down at the bottom of the cab I can see - I don't know how, it was dark - that the speaker plug is out halfway! Turns out the drummer has caught the speaker cable and pulled it slightly while he was getting behind the kit. I get him to reach over and push it back in… forgetting that I am now leaning against the front of a 4x12" with the guitar up full and a 50W amp on 7 - instant shrieking, screaming mayhem .

The amp was fine.

Rocker

Why do amp manufacturers persist in using the "standard" 1/4" socket for everything? Even using a Speakon socket for the speaker(s) would eliminate this kind of problem.